This Man Part 31

My eyes widen. 'Are you winding me up?'

He ignores me. 'Two,'

I still don't know what happens at zero, but it looks like I'm going to find out. 'I'm not putting the jumper on.'

'One,' His lips press into a straight line of displeasure.

'Do what you like, Jesse. I'm not putting that jumper on.'

His eyes narrow. 'Zero,'

We stand opposite each other, him with an expression of genuine fury mixed with a bit of delight, and me wondering what the h.e.l.l he's going to do now that he's reached zero. I scan the room, looking for an escape, but there's only one, and I have to get past Jesse to make it there. What are the chances of that?

He shakes his head, exhaling a long, lung full of air, and then he makes his move. I dart across the bed to escape, getting caught up in the mountain of sheets and squealing when I feel his warm palm wrap around my ankle. He yanks me across the bed.

'Jesse!' I cry as he flips me over and straddles me, pinning my arms under his knees. 'Get off!' I blow my hair out of my face, finding him looking down at me, his face deadly serious.

'Let's clear something up.' He removes his jacket, throws it on the bed and picks up the jumper. 'If you do what you're told, our lives will be a lot easier. All this...' He strokes his palms over my torso and pinches my nipples through my vest. I yelp. 'is for my eyes only.' He moves his hands behind him and digs his fingers into the hollow above my hips bone.

'NO!' I scream. 'Please, no!' I start laughing. Oh G.o.d, I'll pee myself!

He continues with the digs and squeezes, sending me on a wild bucking mission. I can't breathe. I'm between laughter and crying at the torturous a.s.sault, my bladder set to burst.

'Jesse, I need the toilet!' I half laugh, half cry. All I'm aware of is the agonising suffering he's inflicting on me, the cruel b.a.s.t.a.r.d. And all because I won't put a stupid jumper on?

'That's better.' I hear him say through my bucking frenzy. I feel my hair being brushed away from my face, then his lips pressed hard on mine. 'You could have saved us both a lot of trouble if you'd have just put...the...f.u.c.king...jumper...on.'

I look up at him and scowl as he lifts his heavy weight from me and puts his jacket back on. I sit up, finding I'm wearing the stupid jumper. How did he manage that? I turn my fierceness onto him. He's regarding me intently, not a hint of amus.e.m.e.nt on his face.

'I'll just take it off.' I spit.

'No, you won't.' he a.s.sures me, and he's probably right.

I get off the bed, heading for the bathroom in the ridiculous jumper. 'You're an unreasonable a.r.s.e.' I mutter, slamming the door behind me.

I go for a wee and make a mental note, never to let him get to zero again. That was my worst nightmare. I rub my poor abused hips, the sensitive flesh above my bones still tingling.

When I'm done, I find Jesse in the kitchen with Sam and Kate, who both run their eyes over my jumper clad body. I shrug, pouring myself another wine.

'Made up?' Kate asks, perching on Sam's lap. He separates his thighs, causing Kate to slip between his legs on a squeal. She playfully slaps him before looking at me for an answer.

'No,' I mutter, throwing Jesse a disgruntled look. 'And if you'd like to know who has put a hole in your kitchen door, look no further.' I point my gla.s.s at Jesse. 'He also smashed your wine gla.s.s.' I add, like the pathetic snitch I am.

I watch as Jesse reaches in his pockets, palms off a pile of twenties and slaps them on the table in front of Kate. 'Let me know if it's anymore.' he says, keeping his eyes firmly on me. I look down at the table. There must be at least five hundred quid there. And I notice he didn't apologise, the arrogant a.r.s.e.

Kate shrugs and scoops the money up. 'That should cover it.'

Jesse shoves his hands back in his pockets, saunters over to me and bends so his face is level with mine. 'I like your jumper.'

'f.u.c.k off.' I mouth, before taking a huge swig of wine.

He grins, kissing my nose. 'Mouth,' he warns. He grasps the back of my head, bunching my hair in his fist and pulls me forward so we're nose to nose. 'Don't drink too much.' he orders, and then lands me with a searing hot kiss. I try to resist...a little.

When I'm free from his lips and I've regained my senses, I scoff, taking another glug.

He shakes his head mildly, inhaling deeply, before turning away from me. 'My work here is done.' he says smugly as he leaves.

'Bye.' Kate sings on a laugh. I throw her a filthy look.

'My man,' Sam holds his hand up on a grin. 'Ava, where's the love?'

'Up his a.r.s.e!' I snap, discarding my wine gla.s.s and collecting my phone before storming out of the kitchen, back to my room. The man is impossible. I hear Sam and Kate laughing as I crawl into bed with my jumper on.

I'm pretending the only reason I'm p.i.s.sed is because Jesse has just manhandled me into a jumper. The fact that he's on his way to The Manor, and a certain pouty lipped witch is sure be there, has nothing to do with my bad mood a nothing at all.

As I'm dozing off, my phone starts singing The Stone Roses, This is the One. I roll my eyes, reaching for it from my bedside table. I need to teach that man some phone manners.

'What?' I snap.

'Who do you think you're talking to, lady?'

'An unreasonable a.r.s.e!'

'I'll ignore that. Have you still got the jumper on?'

I want to say no. 'Yes.' I grumble. Would he come back and torture me some more if I did say no? 'Is that all you rang for?'

'No, I wanted to hear your voice.' he says softly. 'I'm having Ava withdrawal.'

I melt a little on a sigh. He can be so domineering, bossy and unreasonable, and in the next breath, completely soppy and lovely. 'You've been messing with my phone again.' I accuse.

'You're not going to hear me call if it's on silent, are you?'

'No, but how did you know it was on silent?' I ask, although I already know. I need to put a PIN lock on it. 'Anyway, it's rude. And you need to apologise to Sally.'

'I'm sorry. Who's Sally?'

'No, you're not. Sally is the waif like creature in my office who you verbally attacked.'

'Oh, I'll take care of it. Make sure you dream of me.'

I smile. 'I will. Goodnight.'

'Oh, Ava?'

'What?'

'You're the one, baby.' He hangs up, and my heart jumps up into my throat. What is the one? Does he mean what I think he means? I start chewing my thumb nail and drift off to sleep considering his coded statement.

Am I The One?

Is he The One?

Oh, h.e.l.l. I really want him to be.

Chapter 24.

I sit at my desk in a complete daydream, my mind racing with thoughts of The One and f.u.c.kings of various degrees. If a in my perfect little world a I end up in a relations.h.i.+p with Jesse, would this be how it is all of the time? Jesse making his commands and me who obeys? It's that or receiving some sort of f.u.c.k, or being subjected to some kind of countdown and torture until I relent, or he manhandles me into complying. I'm not denying the certain element of fun in the f.u.c.king side of things, but there has to be give and take. And I'm not sure Jesse knows how to give a unless it's one of his varying degrees of f.u.c.king. He's so good at it, though. I bristle when I conclude that it is, undoubtedly, because he's had plenty of practice. My pencil snaps in my hand. What? I look at the splintered wood in my grasp. Oh...dear.

'Ava, you're here early.' Sally walks into the office, and I immediately giggle to myself. I saw Sally in a different light yesterday.

'Yes, I woke up early.' I say, wanting to add that it's because a neurotic a.r.s.e made me wear a winter jumper in bed, causing me to wake up in a pool of sweat.

She settles herself at her desk. 'I tried calling you yesterday after you left.'

'You did?' I frown, but then realise that I probably cleared Sally's missed call with the dozens of others from Jesse.

'Yes, that angry man came into the office shortly after you left.'

'He did?' I should have known.

'He did. And his mood had not improved.' she says dryly.

I can imagine. I smile. 'Did you give him a cuddle?'

Sally snorts, flopping back in her chair in another fit of laughter. I join her, laughing helplessly as I watch Sal fall apart all over her desk.

Patrick walks in and looks at both of us in exasperation before making his way to his own office, shutting the door behind him.

Oh, s.h.i.+t! 'Was Patrick here?' I ask.

She takes her gla.s.ses off and starts cleaning them with the hem of her brown, polyester blouse. 'What? When the lunatic came in? No, he was collecting Irene from the train station.'

I let out a sigh of relief. What's Jesse thinking? He's a client. He can't come into my office and start throwing his weight around. I can hardly pa.s.s off Jesse's temper as a normal client grievance scenario. He's already heaved me out of the office once.

The office door opens and the flower delivery girl aLusso girl again a trundles in with two lavish sprays. 'Flower deliveries for Ava and Sally?'

I watch as Sally nearly pa.s.ses out at her desk. I bet she's never had flowers brought for her. I already know who they're from, though. The smooth b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

'Me?' Sally gushes, grabbing the colourful bouquet from the delivery girl and shooing her towards my desk.

'Thanks.' I smile, taking the simple spray of calla lilies before signing on behalf of Sally and myself. Sal looks like she might be in a daydream for the rest of the day. 'What does the card say, Sal?' I call, watching her eyes dart from left to right across the words.

She leans back, placing her hand over her heart. 'It says..."Please accept my apologies. That woman makes me crazy" Oh, Ava!' She looks up at me all soppy. 'I would love to make a man that crazy!'

I roll my eyes, retrieving the card from my own flowers. I bet I don't have an apology. And Sally wouldn't be saying that if she was on the receiving end of Jesse's unreasonable, neurotic behavior. I make him crazy? What a joke.

I open my card.

You're the one I've been waiting for...

Jx My soppy side swoons slightly, but then the sensible side of my brain a the part that's not completely consumed with Jesse a is screaming that The One is actually someone who drops to their knees and obeys his every command, demand and instruction. While I'm fully aware that I've done exactly that, on numerous occasions, I also need to keep a hold of my ident.i.ty and my mind. It's b.l.o.o.d.y hard when I'm so affected by this man. He's already got my body a or claimed it, more like.

My phone starts ringing. I ignore the pang of disappointment at hearing the standard ringtone, but I can't ignore the pang of panic when I see Matt's name flas.h.i.+ng up on the screen, though. What does he want?

'h.e.l.lo?' I greet as bored as I intended it to be.

'Ava, I didn't think you would answer.' His voice is cautious, and it should be after the stunt he pulled. I don't know why I even answered.

'Why would you think that, Matt?' The sarcasm is dripping from my voice. The worm has a nerve after what he said and how he behaved.

'I'm sorry, Ava. I was bang out of line. Everything got on top of me. My boss told me that redundancies are going to be happening...and...it...urm...well, it put me on edge.'

Oh, lovely. So he thought he'd try to get me back on that basis? Does he want financial security if he happens to lose his job? Cheeky t.w.a.t! Does he realise what he's just said?

'I'm sorry about that.' I reply flatly.

'Thanks. It just brought things home. I've lost you, and now I might be losing my job. It's all gone t.i.ts up.' His voice is quivering with emotion.

I sigh. 'I'm sure you'll be fine.' I a.s.sure him in my best calming tone. 'You're good at your job.' He really is. He has the confident a a bit too confident a att.i.tude required of a sales person.

'Yeah, I just wanted to make amends with you, though.'

That's okay with me, as long as he doesn't hit me with another "I want you back" speech. What was he thinking? 'It's fine, don't worry. I'll see you about, okay?'

'Yeah, we could do lunch again,' he adds quickly. 'As friends...of course, I still have these boxes with the last of your stuff.'

'I'll pick them up next week. Take care, Matt.' I ignore his lunch suggestion.

'You too,'

I hang up, tossing my phone onto my desk. As much as he's a t.w.a.t, I don't wish unemployment on him. He'll be fine. I put Matt out of my head and concentrate on getting some work done. I pretend not to check my phone every ten minutes to make sure it's on and the volume is up. Why hasn't he called?

I walk down our street after picking up a bottle of wine and see Kate in the distance, jumping around in the middle of the road like the red headed nutter that she is. As I near, I do a double take. Parked up next to Margo is another bright pink van, but this one's brand spanking new. So, Kate's finally invested in some new wheels. It's about time.

'Nice wheels.' I say as I approach.

She spins around, her blue eyes dancing, her pale cheeks flushed. 'Do you know anything about this?'

Me? 'Why would I?'

'I just got home and it was parked here. I admired it for a bit, walked through the front door and trod on the keys. Look.' She thrusts the keys under my nose, prompting me to look at the note attached to a piece of string on the key ring.